


The Way It Should've Been

by Suzann89x



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, non-canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-07
Updated: 2015-04-07
Packaged: 2018-03-21 18:00:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3701447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suzann89x/pseuds/Suzann89x
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is in response to a story request from psychopompious on Tumblr in which Lily & James live a bit longer, reconcile with Snape, and Lily attempts to show Severus how to deal with baby Harry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Way It Should've Been

**Author's Note:**

  * For [psychopompious](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=psychopompious).



“It’s not like he ever did anything to make you not like him, James.”

Flopping onto the overstuffed sofa, James chewed his thumbnail, “He met you first.”

“Oh, shut up, James; you know he couldn’t have helped that! What do you care anyway? You somehow got me to marry you.”

“Wasn’t easy, though,” James said under his breath.

Stomping toward her husband angrily, Lily’s green eyes narrowed, “Excuse me? What did you just say?”

The hark-haired wizard just shook his head.

“Don’t you dare ignore me, James Potter.”

“I said it wasn’t easy.”

Lily stood in front of him, her arms crossed, looking down at her husband as though he were a disrespectful child, “Go on.”

“It was Padfoot’s idea,” James said pleadingly.

“Haven’t you learned Sirius’ ideas never end well?” Lily rolled her eyes then continued her interrogation, “What exactly was Sirius’s brilliant idea?”

“Gibginewuhlixah,” James muttered.

“Didn’t catch that.”

James sighed, “Giving you an elixir.”

Lily’s face turned as red as her hair with anger, “An elixir for what?”

James just looked at his wife sheepishly.

“YOU DIDN’T!”

He drained of all color, “Figured once I got you to marry me, I wouldn’t need it anymore.”

Lily raged and stormed out of the living room, despising James. For all their years at Hogwarts, Lily had focused on James, ignoring her best friend, all because James was secretly slipping her a potion. 

She snatched up a piece of her luggage, threw it onto the bed she shared with the man who had been drugging her for seven years, and summoned several outfits from the closet to cram into the small bag. She stormed out of the house, glaring at James as she slammed the door behind herself.

“Lily! Please!” James called after her. She ignored him and Apparated.

Lily went to the first place she thought of, Cokeworth – more specifically, Spinner’s End. She hadn’t been to the shabby little town since she was a small girl, but had heard that Severus still lived in his family’s house. Lily remembered that the area was rather rundown, but was shocked when she saw that the appeared on a dirty street strewn with rubbish and several old boots – none matching - puddles of water… or oil …or blood – well, puddles of something - barely reflecting the solitary dim, flickering streetlight. She pulled her thin sweater around her shoulders, useless against the 50° weather, wishing she had grabbed something warmer.  
She was still seething over James’s betrayal and manipulation of her, getting angrier and angrier the more she thought about it.  
Distracted by her fury, Lily stepped into a surprisingly deep pothole filled with the mysterious fluid, “Damn!” she cursed quietly as the liquid drenched the leg of her pants with the sudden splash.  
Lily didn’t bother drying her clothes; she just wanted to see her friend who her husband despised too much to have allowed him in their house.  
Shivering against the icy November air, she trudged toward the last house on the lane, her mind no longer focused on James, or what he had done, but what his actions had taken from her, namely, the closest friend she’d ever had. Until she had been thirteen, Lily had always assumed she would marry Severus – after all, love is based on friendship and trust, and there was no one she trusted more. She hadn’t realized until this thought entered her mind, how much she missed him, which is probably the reason that, when Snape had opened the door to his house, he could only get out, “Lil – ” before she had thrown her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.  
“Oh, Severus! I’m so sorry. For everything,” she said, “I’ve missed you so much!”

He stepped aside, opening the door wider, “I assume you’d like to come in.”

Giving a silly giggle, Lily teased, “You think? It’s freezing out here!” then hurried into the shelter of Snape’s house.

After locking and warding the door, Snape stood before the woman he had loved since he was a young boy, “What are you doing, Lily?”

She had flopped onto the small, threadbare sofa, “What? Am I not allowed to just stop by to see my friend?” 

Snape rubbed his forehead, looking stressed, “You haven’t spoken to me in almost a year. You show up at nearly midnight, and expect me to simply not ask questions?”

Lily sighed heavily, “It’s James.”

“What did he do? What. did he. do?” Snape’s face filled with anger.

“Turns out,” she said casually, “he’s been…drugging me.”

He narrowed his dark eyes, “Come again?”

“James’s been slipping me a love potion since Hogwarts.”

Although Snape remained silent, his feelings of disgust, horror, and outrage were clear on his face.

“Makes sense, though, I guess, looking back,” Lily mused, threading a lock of her red hair through her fingers, “I mean, think about it; I just abandoned you, suddenly, and became obsessed with him.”

“I just thought you had decided you wanted nothing to do with me,” Snape’s voice cracked ever so slightly when he said this.

Lily frowned for a moment before she stood and walked to him to place her hands on either side of his face, “I would never do that, Severus. Never. You’re the most important person in the world to me and I…” she trailed off, releasing his face and turned away from him, heat filling her cheeks.

Snape pursed his lips, his mind racing with unintelligible thoughts; he desperately wanted to know the end of that statement. He remained silent, looking at Lily’s back, her red hair messily falling in rich waves against her deep purple sweater. After several long moments, he thought he saw her shoulders moving slightly; then, he heard a faint sob.

Hesitating briefly, Snape stepped toward her to place his hands on her shoulders, “Lily. What do you need me to do? I can’t kill him – as much as he deserves it…” 

Lily gave a tiny laugh through her sobs as she turned to bury her face in his chest, still crying. Snape furrowed his brow, unsure of how he was expected to handle this; the woman he had been in love with for the majority of his life was weeping uncontrollably in his arms. He settled with wrapping his arms around her, rubbing her back in an attempt to comfort, but felt silly doing this, so he asked again, “What do you want me to do?” 

She mumbled something Snape didn’t understand.

“You know I couldn’t hear that, Lily-bug,” he thought using the nickname he had called her when they were kids would perhaps cheer her up.

Lily either giggled or sniffled loudly, “Do you have a Time-Turner, Severus? Or better yet, a way to simply redo the last decade?”

Snape smirked, “Afraid not. What would you do, anyway? Beat him up?”

Lily shook her head, “No. I would just like another chance to do things right. Like, I wouldn’t have let anything – or anyone – come between us. That’s what I’d like a second chance on.”

“What’s that?”

Lily nuzzled into his shirt, “Us.”

Snape sighed, “You don’t need one. You can barge into my house at midnight whenever you want.”

She lifted her green eyes to Snape’s face, “No. Us.”

Unable to believe she had just said what he thought she’d said, Snape cleared his throat, “Us?”

Lily’s emerald eyes, although still sodden, shone with mischievousness, “Us.”

Snape’s heart did a full gymnastic routine in a millisecond. A master of controlling his displays of emotion, he showed only a shadow of the parade in his chest as he brought his hand to Lily’s face and quietly replied, “You don’t need a second chance.”

He lowered his lips to hers gently. Lily placed her hands on his chest and leaned into the kiss. Slowly, very slowly, he kissed her, wanting to burn this memory into his mind forever.

James had never, not even once, kissed her the way she was being kissed by Severus; it was as though he were trying to study every inch of her lips, tediously and gently brushing his mouth against hers; she could feel his deep care for her in every single, tiny movement of his lips. 

Although reluctantly, they parted.

“I love you,” Lily said quietly.

Snape’s expression was unfathomable; happiness, disbelief, excitement, and hope filled his face, but it was tinged with sadness.

“I guess I’d known it this whole time,” she continued, “I mean, I’ve missed you every single day; I felt empty without you.”

“Lily,” Snape pushed a piece of hair out from in front of her green eyes, “Imagine feeling empty for 20 years.”

“Severus…”

Snape kissed her again, slowly still, but passionately this time.

He had, of course, imagined and fantasized about what it would be like to hold Lily in his arms, but his daydreams had never come close to the reality of having her bare skin under his, her beautiful, perfect body beneath him, a masterpiece of a woman, baring her body and soul to him. 

She was gorgeous, the embodiment of magnificence; he left no inch of her beautiful form untouched – he bathed her skin in tender kisses and gentle caresses. Snape leisurely explored her exquisite body, not a single thought of rushing things entering his mind. His hands grazed up her outer thighs as he returned to kiss Lily’s lips.  
Snape pushed her hair off her neck and brushed light kisses over her shoulder as he entered her. She gasped quietly before sighing in pleasure. He laced his fingers through hers as he slowly moved within her, bringing his lips to Lily’s ear to murmur, “I love you, Lily. Please let this be real.”

“It is,” she whispered back.

Lily was a masterpiece. He couldn’t believe that he was actually making love to her. It was as though her body had been crafted specifically for him, and his for her; they fit together perfectly, and it seemed that even their souls became one.  
She brought his hand, her fingers intertwined with his, to her mouth and gently, passionately kissed the back of it before her body trembled uncontrollably and she sighed his name, her lips still on his hand.

Snape watched Lily quiver beneath him, entranced by her face, which was filled with pure ecstasy. He returned his mouth to her neck as her shivers melted into his own shudders of bliss.


End file.
